


Remorse Weeps

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Series: The Thinker, The Feeler [13]
Category: Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Angst and Feels, Bedside Vigils, Best Friends, Blood Drinking, Blood Loss, Canon Compliant, Coma, Confusion, Energon, Episode: s04e17 Uninvited Guest, Explanations, Fear, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Major Character Injury, Medical Procedures, Mid-Canon, Missing Scene, Panic, Protectiveness, Stasis, Surprises, Whump, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 07:25:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15601281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: A missing scene from "Uninvited Guest". After Heatwave wakes up from his stasis for an energon infusion, he struggles with the guilt of being the first one attacked by the Energon Eater.More importantly, Chasehasn'twoken up.





	Remorse Weeps

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lapis01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lapis01/gifts).



> Note: Enclosed briefly in the story is a headcanon credited to delkios on tumblr. I suggest you read that story first but it's not severely mandatory. If you want to read the headcanon, go there and look for "Everything's Alright".
> 
> If you want the short version, it's that some Bots have been part of scientific experiments which dampen their emotions to make them "more objective", but it just makes it hard for them to understand abstract ideas like "fun" or "joy" or "hate". Some of these Bots develop health complications, anxiety problems, obsessiveness, perfectionism, etc. Chase is one of these Bots.

Heatwave had done his best to contain himself, to stifle the emotions that threatened to make his spark burst from its chamber. After everything that had happened, he could barely find it in himself to sort which emotions were what. As usual, anger vibrated keenly at the forefront, but it wasn’t directed at anyone else; this was reserved solely for himself.

He had let his guard down. The new base on the mainland was meant to be a safe place, wasn’t it? New Bots were meant to be trained here, taught how to defend themselves, and yet he hadn’t vetted it well enough to prevent an attack by one of the deadliest creatures they’d encountered in their vorns of rescue work. What on Cybertron did that say about him?

 _I couldn’t even put up a fight_ , he mused bitterly. _Eight kliks. All it took was eight kliks and I went down like a passive little rhodium-rabbit!_

Suffice it to say, those eight kliks would be burned into his memory for a long time; if he thought back, he could still feel the shock of the Energon Eater’s slimy form wriggling into him and latching its invasive fangs onto his backstrut. He relived the strength draining out of every inch of his frame, nervecircuits vibrating with icy nausea and dizziness as he swayed and slurred. The one thing he couldn’t remember was what he had tried to call out to the others. A warning? A plea? He hadn’t even done that right; he was already passing out before he hit the ground.

He’d only been brought out of stasis for an energon infusion about a joor ago, but as soon as his bleary optics had pried open, he’d forgotten his last moments of consciousness and was preoccupied with three things.

The first sight he’d distinguished through the smudged, smeared glass of his stasis pod was Blades, who was working with Boulder across the room, adjusting the settings of his energon IV and encouraging the engineer to relax back on his berth. Secondly he had seen that Bumblebee stood nearby, flicking his doorwings occasionally in unease. The third thing he’d seen had taken a shift to his left, but the ache it created in his body didn’t matter.

 _Chase_. That was the moment Heatwave had panicked, mustering enough strength to bang on the glass and startle the others into approaching. Every nanoklik until the stasis fluid drained from his pod felt like eons; the firemech practically flung himself out as soon as the door swung open for him.

“Heatwave, wait, s-stop!” Blades burst out, barely managing to open his arms in time to intercept him before he hit the floor. “You’re supposed to wait at least three minutes before emerging from a stasis pod—”

“Wh—What happened? How bad?!” Heatwave rasped out, clutching at Blades’ shoulders until he could get his wobbly legs underneath him.

“It was an Energon Eater,” Bumblebee blurted out. “It hitched a ride on my ship when I crashed; we had to hunt it down after it attacked you and Chase in the training room.”

Revulsion and fear twinging through his systems, Heatwave glanced feverishly toward the vent in the far corner. “Is it still—?”

“Bee and Blades caught it,” Boulder assured him hurriedly, though he paused for half a moment to glance down at his arm and the IV pulsing into it. “I’m afraid I wasn’t much help…I went down about six minutes after you did.”

Venting heavily for several kliks, Heatwave kept ahold of Blades’ shoulder with one hand even as he turned away from him and planted the other on Chase’s pod. “Chase,” he forced out, trying not to let his voice hitch in his worry. “Why isn’t _he_ awake?”

“He—He lost a lot more energon than you did,” Blades admitted, fidgeting under Heatwave’s hand. “You and Boulder lost about twenty-five percent. Chase lost nearly forty. I think it has something to do with his spark; it processes energon more slowly than ours so more unfiltered energon was, um, immediately available for the Energon Eater to…”

He trailed off there, pursing his lips, and something in Heatwave’s chest dropped straight through to the pit of his internals. He wouldn’t be ashamed to admit that it took a few kliks to steady himself, his fingers tightening on the glass separating him and his SIC.

“Why didn’t you wake him up first?” he questioned lowly, tensely, looking beyond Blades toward Boulder, who froze when he noticed his narrowed gaze. “He needs the energon the most.”

“They wanted to wait until it was safe, Heatwave—until his body was out of shock,” Bumblebee explained in a consoling tone that grated on every nervecircuit in Heatwave’s frame.

“And before you ask, it’s _not_ safe yet,” Blades added, leaning into Heatwave’s hand to grab the other and guide him a few feet away from the pods, toward the side of the room with the medical supplies. “But while we wait, we—we need to get you and Boulder refueled, okay? We need to set up another IV for you—”

“No!” Heatwave spat with more defensiveness than he intended, wrenching out of the pseudo-medic’s grip and stumbling back. Chase’s pod was there at his shoulder to lean on as he caught ahold of his vents and tried to still his trembling. “You think I’m gonna take an energon infusion you could be giving to him? I’m not about to let a member of my team suffer because of what I ‘ _need_.’”

“Heatwave, please!” Cody pleaded, drawing a slight jump from him. When had the human entered the room? “You know Chase would _want_ you to take the energon; it doesn’t do him any good if you’re both still hurt! You don’t even have to take the full dose, right?” Here he cast an expectant glance to Blades, who was undoubtedly going to protest until he realized that a compromise would probably be the only thing their leader would accept.

“Right,” he concurred at last, hesitant. “I think you could make do with half.”

Heatwave genuinely wanted to continue arguing the point, but dizziness was starting to get the better of him. The thought arose, courtesy of the all-too-familiar voice of reason in his mind, that if he worsened his own condition, he wouldn’t be able to watch over Chase as he should.

“Half,” he echoed with a minute nod. “Half now, half after Chase gets his share.”

So it was that he sat here in a hover chair before Chase’s stasis pod, torn between thanking Primus for his IV and tearing it out of his arm as precious energon flowed back to his systems. Blades had practically begged him to lie on his berth instead, but he’d refused. He knew for certain that he wouldn’t have been able to rest there.

Once he was seated, he kept his optics pinned on the pod, completely ignoring what happened in the background. Eventually the others had gotten the hint and had left him to recheck the status of the tricursed Pit-spawn that had done this to them. Boulder, still on the other side of the room, stayed quiet—at least until he went into recharge. Heatwave did his best to tune out the sound of the bulldozer’s motor rattling, burying himself in his thoughts.

When he strained his processor, he could faintly remember. He had been semiconscious when the others had realized he fell; bits and pieces of audio could fill in the gaps. While the others were wondering and questioning and panicking, Chase was the last one to reach him and the first one to try and help. For that loyalty, he was the only one close enough to be taken next. Had anyone bothered to try helping _him?_ How could they have let him lose almost twice the amount of energon as the others?

What kind of effects could it have on a NET patient’s spark to lose so much? Who knew when…or _if_ …?

No. He couldn’t afford to think that way; if he did, it would consume him. Swallowing hard, Heatwave leaned forward in his chair, straining the IV lead as he watched Chase drift back and forth in his stasis fluid, bubbles fluttering from his exposed vents. He looked so _vulnerable_.

“You tried to be there for me, Chase,” Heatwave muttered, pressing his free hand flat against the cold glass. “I’ll be right here for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't think one could get away with having their energon sucked out _that_ easily, especially when his spark's already been tampered with in the past! I figured I'd exercise my Transformers fanfiction muscles again and have fun with some angst! I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
